Microsoft Surface Q4 Sales Under 1 Million Units Sold [Rumor]

The Microsoft Surface tablet has not received the warm welcome the tech giant had hoped for thanks to marred touch covers and a less than stellar Windows RT version of its Windows 8 OS. While other aspects of Microsoft’s first tablet experiment were positively reviewed it was not enough to drive sales.

According to Boston-based brokerage firm Detwiler Fenton, Microsoft throughout Q4 will have sold less than one million units of its new flagship tablet system, far below company estimates that originally called for upwards of 2 million units sold during that same time period.

If analyst predictions are correct the Microsoft Surface tablet will have sold only 500,000-600,000 units during Q4 2012.

Selling less than one million units for a device that has been heavily promoted throughout the holiday buying season is not a good sign for Microsoft which has also watched sales of Windows 8 upgrades slow compared to past OS versions. Microsoft has also failed to grab a suitable chunk of the mobile OS market.

According to the Detwiler report Microsoft’s tablet strategy seems to be “in disarray.”

Microsoft could be struggling because of a high price point on a device that is not even capable of running full versions of Windows apps. When the Surface Pro tablet debuts Windows legacy apps will be allowed but the high starting price point of $899 will likely deter many possible users from the full Windows 8 based version of the Microsoft Surface.

Microsoft is also likely losing out on sales because of its failure to form retail partnerships with the likes of Walmart, Best Buy, Target and other leading national retailers.

The Microsoft Surface tablet has managed to anger Microsoft’s long standing OEM partners who feared hardware developed and sold by the tech giant would cannibalize their own sales. As it turns out some strong experience in the hardware business may have been the way to go with Windows 8 in the first place.

Do you think Microsoft can rebound and create a Surface product buyers actually want to purchase?

[Image via Microsoft]